This invention relates generally to archery, and more particularly to broadhead arrow tips with expandable blades for archery arrows.
Bow hunting has largely become a sport and less of a means for survival. With this mindset, bow hunters are becoming more conscious of humanely harvesting animals by shortening the time required for an animal to die as a result of being shot by an arrow. Arrowheads have advanced over the ages from merely a sharpened point at the end of the arrow's shaft, to separately attached fixed-blade arrowheads, and now to expandable broadhead arrow tips with movable blades which swing open upon impact. The patented prior art for expandable broadhead arrow tips reaches back at least as far as U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,417 to Steinbacher in 1951.
As was detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,128,521 issued in 2012 to Ulmer, said reference incorporated by reference in its entirety, the blades of expandable broadhead arrow tips generally become fixed with respect to the ferrule and are incapable of movement when the arrowhead strikes dense matter such as a substantial bone within the target, thus reducing the amount of penetration and wounding inflicted upon the target. Ulmer, as one means of addressing this problem, designed the blades to interlock with each other so that the blades could pivot with respect to the ferrule, allowing the blades to move out of the way of obstructions within the target. This design, however, limits the ability to avoid obstructions to one means of responsiveness.
A primary objective of this invention is to provide a broadhead arrow tip with blades which can independently move to avoid obstructions in multiple ways, thus increasing the amount of penetration and wounding inflicted upon a target. The inventor has developed a way to achieve this through widening the slot in the ferrule to allow the blades to move and/or tilt more freely in response to obstructions within the target. The slot in ferrule bodies of the prior art to date are generally sized to be slightly larger than the thickness of the blades held within the slot, thus restricting movement afforded to the blades, as U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,341 to Forrest et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,930 to Troncoso show.